Abstract:

To assist students develop a deeper understanding of the fundamental elements that govern chemical processes, a set of simulations was developed that graphically illustrates in two dimensions the motion and interaction of particles in a reactor. The simulations were used for teaching the residence time distribution concept in the third year Chemical Engineering Reactor Design course. In testing the effectiveness of the simulation, a traditional ‘chalk and talk’ lecture was given to one half of a class of eighty students, while the other half was taught using the simulation. It was found that the latter group performed 17% better in a quiz administered straight after the lecture, even though this was found, in retrospect, to be the group that had performed 13% worse in an earlier class test. More importantly, the answers provided by this group clearly showed a superior understanding of the subject material.

It is proposed that since the student of today is familiar with the dynamic simulations from video games and other multimedia easily accessible through the internet, a new ‘visual literacy’ has developed that may afford educators new opportunities in presenting complex concepts. Based on this logic, it is demonstrated why the traditional approaches to teaching engineering fundamentals may not be compatible with the modern student.

Plans for developing a platform on which educators may develop new simulation objects are presented. The intention is to extend the range of situations that could be simulated, thus opening exciting opportunities for extensions to other chemical engineering courses, as well to other branches of engineering. Finally, our attempts to upgrade the simulation platform to three dimensions are described.

Keywords:

simulation, teaching methods, computer modelling.